Bravo! Beautiful post, simply beautiful.

Somewhere, sometime, I read that Odysseus is the first modern character, and after thinking about it for a time, I tend to agree. He is not simplistic like Akhilles, but very complex. Always the outsider in the Iliad (some have called it his Autolykos connection- Autolykos being his grandfather and a twisty, unsavory character in many ways) he nonetheless was veru well respected. In the Odyssey, he is the quintessentil survivor, pitting his very real intelligence against all sorts of trials and travails. Suspicious, wily, the man of many turns (which is why Athena loves him so) he is nonetheless committed to his wife and son, and to his home.

I feel he is a brilliantly conceived and executed character and Nikolaos, your post is very enlightening.